Overstock.com Fires Auditors After They Agree With Me on GAAP Violations

Updated

In a real dumb move, Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), led by CEO Patrick Byrne, dismissed Grant Thornton as the company’s auditors and filed an unreviewed Q3 2009 10-Q because of material disagreements over certain accounting issues with its now fired auditors.

Those material disagreements relate to reports in my blog exposing Overstock.com's establishment of an improper "cookie jar" reserve to materially inflate its future financial performance in violation of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and SEC disclosure rules. Apparently, Grant Thornton agrees with me and not Overstock.com on the accounting issues. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating financial reporting violations by Overstock.com based on those reports in my blog.

Overstock.com scheduled a conference call on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 5 PM eastern to discuss the above issues. At this point, I will reserve further comment rather than tip my hand. Instead, I will wait for Overstock.com, its audit committee, its board of directors, and its management team to dig a deeper hole for themselves by continuing to lie to investors about the company's claimed compliance with GAAP and securities laws.

Meanwhile, I suggest reading what investigative journalist and best selling author Gary Weiss has to say about recent developments and what satirist William Wolfrum has to say, too.

All frauds ultimately implode and we are witnessing in real time the implosion of Patrick Byrne's frauds on investors.

To be continued....

Update:

This morning, I sent an email to Patrick Byrne requesting my participation in the scheduled conference call. Let's see if he has the courage to take my questions during the call and answer them truthfully.

Written by,

Sam E. Antar

Note: Please read my guest article in Newsweek entitled, "Bernie Madoff's Giant Ponzi Scheme."

Disclosure:

I am a convicted felon and a former CPA. As the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie, I helped Eddie Antar and other members of his family mastermind one of the largest securities frauds uncovered during the 1980's. If it weren't for the efforts of the FBI, SEC, Postal Inspector's Office, and class action plaintiff's lawyers who investigated, prosecuted, and sued me, I would still be the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie today.

I do not own Overstock.com securities short or long. My research on Overstock.com and in particular its lying CEO Patrick Byrne is a freebie for securities regulators and the public in order to help me get into heaven, though I doubt that I will ever get there anyway. I will probably end up joining corporate miscreants such as Patrick Byrne in hell. In any case, exposing corporate crooks is a lot of fun for a forcibly "retired" crook like me.